Haunted
by PenNuser
Summary: Collection of short stories that feature crossovers with movies or books of the horror genre, i.e. "Children of the Corn", "The Ring", etc; starring our favorite profiler cast. Warning: character deaths.
1. 01: Part I: Slaughter in Gatlin

**HAUNTED**

**Disclaimer for this particular story: **I do not own _Children of the Corn_ or _Criminal Minds_.

**Warnings: **_Collection_ of short stories mean that these stories are in no way connected to one another. If a character dies in one story, they can very well be alive in the next. These stories are _crossovers_ meaning that some characters will have come from other books/tv series/movies. Short stories are usually _several chapters long_ so it might be fast-paced. There will be character death(s) in some stories but not all.

**Inspiration: **Stephen King, the creator of _The Ring_, _The Grudge_, Blackboxtv on Youtube, the horror genre in general and of course, watching and anticipating the next Criminal Minds episode this Wednesday.

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**Summary:**

Collection of short stories that feature crossovers with movies or books of the horror genre, i.e. "Children of the Corn", "The Ring", etc; starring our favorite profiler cast. Warning: character deaths.

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**01. Part I: **SLAUGHTER IN GATLIN

**Summary of **"Slaughter in Gatlin" –

Aaron Hotchner and Spencer Reid have to travel up to Wyoming to interrogate a man on death-row. They decide to drive there because Aaron still has problems with the ringing in his ear. Unfortunately as they start to past through Nebraska, their SUV breaks down near a seemingly deserted town known as Gatlin…

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The droning buzz of the car engine against the quiet of the rural road leading through the state of Nebraska nearly put Spencer to sleep sitting in the front passenger seat. Aaron Hotchner, the Unit Chief of the FBI's BAU, gripped the steering wheel and accelerated on the gas pedal, ignoring the slight lurches of the SUV as they drove over mounds of dirt and pebbles and gravel. The silence in the SUV was deafening, threatening to suffocate the two men, encasing them in a small invisible box with the lid firmly shut.

Spencer found himself staring out the window at the endless rows of corn, corn, _corn_. It was like someone was bored one day and decided it would be funny to plant fields of corns in the middle of rural Nebraska – AKA the middle of nowhere – to drive the poor lost passersby crazy because Spencer sure as hell felt like he'd go crazy if he had to keep seeing corn everywhere for the next two hours or until Hotch decided to call it quits for the night which Spencer hoped was soon. The young profiler snuck a glance at his more serious boss to see Aaron Hotchner's narrowed eyes pointedly staring at the road, his hands tightly clenching the steering wheel as if super glued there.

As if sensing the profiler's eyes on him, Aaron's hands relaxed slightly and his voice seemed to boom out in the dead silence of the SUV. "Want me to turn on the radio?" he asked as the vehicle lurched forward again, making Spencer's head almost collide against the headboard due to the suddenness. "Sorry about that – damn road," the unit chief muttered. He turned to the right slightly as a curve came up.

Spencer rubbed his head and let out a sigh. He didn't care much about music but it was better than the deathly quiet that seemed to be cocooning the SUV and he also preferred it over the slightly more than soft thumping of his heart as it beat rapidly in his ribcage. "Sure," he said hesitatingly, his eyes back to watching the endless seas of corn. There was something very unnerving about the lack of change in scenery for the past hour and a half to Spencer and he was sure, to Aaron as well. Still his boss didn't say a word as he quickly darted out a hand to turn the radio on.

Some old country music the two never heard of before…

"I might have missed a turn back there," Aaron said sourly, squinting into the windshield. It was getting late and he couldn't see much even with the headlights turned on, except well, the seemingly endless amounts of corn peering at them from every which direction. He looked over at Spencer for a second before focusing back to the road ahead. His younger companion was getting tired and quite frankly, so was Aaron. "Think we should stop somewhere nearby for the night?" he asked, peering out in a vain search for a motel to crash in. Of course, when did the country ever have a motel or hotel? He wasn't sure they even passed by a gas station yet.

Spencer grimaced. The music faded as the song finally ended and a male voice started to preach into the SUV. He saw his unit chief frown and hurriedly turn the radio back off. Spencer wasn't a religious man – he was more of a person that only believed in things that he could see and God, well, no one ever saw God. He wasn't too sure about Aaron because the man never talked about things like that – he was an extremely private individual – but it wouldn't shock Spencer if his boss didn't believe in God either.

"It is getting dark," Spencer observed quietly.

It was haunting how fast the afternoon changed to evening, how quickly the dark clouds took over the sky as the bright yellow sun was reluctantly pushed down behind the mountains. The sudden forward jerk of the SUV seemed to snap Spencer out of his somber reveries and back into cold reality of Aaron Hotchner wrestling with the steering wheel. He watched as the dark haired man pressed hard on the brakes but the SUV seemed to ignore the action as the vehicle continued on its one-way track to the fields of corn ahead of them.

Cursing, Aaron Hotchner let go of the steering wheel as the motor made an odd sputtering noise before, then, giving one more pathetic tug forwards letting the SUV finally come to a complete stop right in front of the maze of corn. Spencer, wide-eyed and more awake than ever, turned to stare at the rows of corn just outside of them. The sky seemed to darken even more.

From beside him, Aaron was also sitting stiff in his chair as if he was frozen to it, not wanting to believe that they just broke down in the middle of nowhere. This wasn't exactly what he meant by stopping somewhere to rest for the night. He glanced over to his companion whom sat to the right of him in the front passenger seat. Spencer hasn't said a word for a few minutes now. Neither did Aaron.

The front engine of the SUV had stopped a minute ago and the two men were sitting in more silence. He wished that the radio worked still, even if that meant putting up with some religious fool talking crap about _Judgment Day_ or God himself all night long.

"You okay, Reid?" he asked knowing it was kind of a pointless question but at the same time not wanting to put up with any more of the quietness that found its way into the vehicle.

Spencer turned to him slowly and swallowed down the nausea that tried to creep up his throat. Personally, he didn't want to be stuck in the SUV all night but out here in the middle of nowhere, Nebraska (because he didn't see one lousy town or gas station for more than several hours by now) he was more than positive they would have no phone service. He tried to nod that he was okay even though he was still slightly in shock and haven't a clue what happened besides almost crashing themselves into a bunch of stupid _corn_. "I'm fine," he said, swallowing again and reaching a shaky hand down to unbuckle his seatbelt.

Aaron was already doing the same once his brain finally managed to kick-start itself again, screaming into the his head something along the lines of _I'm not sleeping in the SUV_. Once he stumbled out of the car and moved to the front to see the exact damage of the vehicle, he found himself staring hopelessly down at the mess of the engine, smoke coming out of it in a thick stream. He tried not to inhale any of the smoke as he darted past it to Spencer's side and helped the profiler out.

"Think we'll get a signal out here?" he asked in a strained voice, his hand already dipping down into the front pocket of his pants for his cell phone as the young genius shook his head dejectedly. He punched in numbers and put the phone to his ear, waiting and hoping to get a ring on the other end but part of him already realized that Spencer was right and after a few desperate minutes of nothing, he had to give up and put the phone back into his pocket. He sighed and looked around them. There was nothing but the dirt road, the SUV and corn. Corn, corn, _corn_.

The logical thing to do was to get back inside the SUV and sleep there for the night and decide the next course of action - which was really only one he realized (and probably neither men even liked) - first thing in the morning. But there was a part of Aaron – a large part – that was starved and thirsty and wanted nothing more than to rest his head on a nice, soft pillow even if said pillow belonged to a cheap motel off the side of the road. He looked at Spencer and could tell with one glance that the young profiler wanted the same thing.

"Maybe we should go back to the SUV and sleep there for the night," Spencer suggested wryly, noticing how his boss was trying hard to keep awake and focused. "It's getting really dark, Hotch. Besides JJ packed me some nutrition bars for the trip, remember?"

It was true and it was the more logical thing to do and part of Aaron realized that, knew that but truth be told, Aaron was getting sick of doing the logical thing when all he wanted was a nice comfy bed to lay on for one more night and a full belly of real food like chicken and tacos (not some stupid nutrition bar that barely sated even _half_ of his hunger) and maybe some beer to go with that. God, would he do anything for a night to drown himself in some liquor. But looking back at Spencer, he knew he was right. There was no way the two would make it to the nearest town, if there even was a town around them for miles anyway, before their feet would give due to exhaustion.

As he nodded his reluctant agreement to go back into the SUV and wait until morning, the two men suddenly became aware of someone watching them. Swiveling around quickly to catch sight of a lone dark figure out further down the road, Spencer heard his heart pounding faster in his chest, threatening to rip out of him. "Hotch," he hissed and heard the slight movement of his boss coming to stand next to him as he too watched as the black silhouette of the person dropped to the ground. Spencer wasn't sure why but fear clenched at his heart and he had to swallow the absurd, almost overwhelming urge to run as far in the opposite direction of the figure as possible.

Instead he looked over to Aaron and saw the man's hands clench into fists on either side of him. Lost or not, stranded in the middle of nowhere or not, they were still FBI. They helped people for a living and just because their SUV managed to break down to the side of the road gave them no right to turn their backs on a fellow human being. Without another word to each other, the two men began to march across the rural road of Nebraska, unconsciously heading into the open arms of nightmarish Gatlin.


	2. Part II: Slaughter in Gatlin

**HAUNTED**

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**PART II: **SLAUGHTER IN GATLIN

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"Reid! Do you have your gun with you – just in case?"

"Yes, sir."

As the two men crept closer Aaron Hotchner started to pull out the gun he kept safely tucked away in the ankle holster of his pants. It never hurt to be too careful and he had a bad feeling about this. His conscious was telling him to pull back and run and his heart was pounding quickly in his ribcage. It was maddening.

Spencer wasn't doing too well either. Something about this whole situation felt wrong to him. He wanted to turn tail and run back to the SUV, not giving a damn that it would make him look like a coward. He wasn't even entirely sure that the fallen figure on the road was even human. Something in his head kept screaming at him, 'how did it even get there'?

The corns around them seemed to tower over them menacingly, leering down as if to silently say, 'we've got you now'. The men tried to ignore it even as the sky seemed to turn darker still, as the evening shadows grew even more all around them. A collected wind passed through, causing them to shiver involuntarily, causing goose bumps to crawl upon flesh.

"Come on," Aaron hissed, not bothering to look at the young genius. His grip on the gun tightened as they closed in on the figure.

By this point, only a few feet away, Spencer could make out the rough outlines of a man's legs, spread on the road as if carelessly tossed. He thought he could see the slight twitching of the man's fingers, the slight movement of the man's foot but it was impossible when they moved forward some more so the entirety of the man was within their periphery vision. It had to have been his imagination. There was no way the man could have moved, no way that the body was living.

He heard the sharp intake of breath as his boss took in the sight before them before letting loose a gasp of shock himself. "Wha-what is this?" He tried to swallow down the bile that stuck to his throat. Fear burned through him as he tried to process the corpse stretched out in front of them, ashes and bones hanging loosely within the confines of plain jeans and belt and shirt, all covered messily with a light-blue jacket that probably wouldn't have fit the man if he were alive anyway. His mind tried to make sense of it.

"There's something wrong here," Aaron whispered from next to him.

Spencer couldn't deny his words. He could feel his heart racing now, fear gnawing at his innards, sweat coming down from his forehead in large beads. His jaw clenched and unclenched and all he could see were the bones and ashes of a dead human being, his mind replaying the figure standing on the road a little while back as it beckoned the two unsuspecting men to come over. He should have listened to his conscious when he had the chance. He should have turned and ran and left Aaron Hotchner to fend for himself.

There was a ferocious tug on the fabric of the vest he decided to wear for the trip and Aaron Hotchner was suddenly dragging him along as he headed back to the SUV, gritting his teeth as Spencer staggered behind him, trying to keep up the pace and yet still watching as the bones shriveled into nothing and the ashes turned into gravel again, only the clothes left behind before the wind picked it all up. "We've got to get out of here."

That must have been the best thing any one of them had suggested all day and Spencer wanted to laugh and fall into hysterics. "Don't fall apart on me, Reid," his boss said and Spencer had a feeling the man himself was only able to keep his cool because he was still in shock. Good God, his infallible boss was in _shock_, holding onto his gun in a death's grip with one hand and trying to squeeze the living breaths out of Spencer in the other.

"Don't fall apart on me either," Spencer wheezed out.

But he knew it was too late for that, even as the grip on his shirt and skin loosened just a little. When they made it back to the SUV, they both knew it was far from safe, that they were no longer alone on the quiet road of nowhere, Nebraska. It wasn't quite confirmed until the two brats showed themselves without having to be called by the FBI agents. Aaron Hotchner wasn't too surprised to find that creepy feeling of being watched coming back up again as they hovered just by the doors to the SUV, about ready to jump in.

It however did surprise him to find out just who had been doing the watching. Kids; two little boys that couldn't have been older than eight. They came running out from behind the black SUV as if they had been there all night waiting for the right moment to confront the two men, probably after that good scare they gave the agents down on the road. Aaron wasn't sure how they did it, he only knew that they were ones that did.

The boys had dirt all over their faces as if they decided it would be fun to play in the mud and haven't bothered taking a bath just yet. Their hairs that had surely been light, maybe blonde like Aaron's own little Jack, were tousled and messy and dark with clutters of dirt. There were several things about their appearances that unnerved Aaron and after what the men had seen through experiences in the FBI…that was saying a lot – Aaron Hotchner just wasn't the kind of man that got too easily bothered.

They'd seen many kids during their share of being on the job and though most shared that common "haunted" look, that some looked so pale and gaunt after what they witnessed, Aaron Hotchner was sure he'd never seen a dark, soulless, almost _evil _quality in their eyes before. It was incredibly creepy the way these kids kept glaring like the devils and demons of Hell possessed over their bodies, the way they gripped their knives and waved them around as if trying to flaunt their powers to the FBI agents…

"These the outlanders Isaac warned us about, do you think?" one of the boys was asking the other.

Spencer wasn't sure what to do. His conscious was again getting back to its feet after being flung into the back of his mind and was trying to tell him to run again. He glanced at Aaron as the man seemed to struggle mentally with himself. Something was off with the kids. There was no way their waiting here had been a coincident. His gaze went to follow one of the boy's knives, old blood crusted to the tip of it.

"Yes, I believe so. There is no such thing as coincidences." The other said. He turned to face the men. "We have to take them." The boy started to walk toward them.

Aaron Hotchner wasted no time in moving back. He pulled Spencer along, his gun pointed at one of the boys. "Listen, kid. Drop the knife and maybe we can talk."

The boys didn't seem to hear him, or chose to ignore the warning. Spencer wondered if they knew what a gun was in first place, what it could do, that Aaron had the upper hand. His own hand went for the gun that dangled from his belt when the kids made no attempts to stop. He didn't want to shoot them but if they didn't heed to the warning…

"Don't," Aaron hissed. "I might be able to reason with them."

It always seemed to come down to Aaron and his moral compass. Killing kids wasn't a part of Spencer's agenda either though. Hesitatingly, he dropped his hand and let Aaron to try and deal with the boys, though he was more than half-way certain it wasn't going to do any good, like talking to a brick wall.

"Drop the knives, boys," the Unit Chief ordered.

"Why?" asked the first. He cocked his head to the side. "We have to take you."

"We'll go with you if you drop your weapons," Aaron said, his tone flat. Spencer knew it was a lie. There was no way Aaron Hotchner would bend to will of others, especially not children. The other one seemed to pick up on it immediately and he looked absolutely livid.

"You lie!"

They started to charge at them and Aaron hissed out a few curses before starting to run back down the road where the men saw the dead man. Spencer raced after him, adrenaline pumping through him, fueling his every step. The dark haired man still refused to shoot the boys and Spencer wondered what it would take to get him to use his gun.

Again, Spencer felt his hand hover close to his own gun. "Don't, Spencer," Aaron had sensed what the younger profiler was thinking, his own heart racing, his breath coming out frustrated huffs. "They're children."

"Yeah, trying to kill us," Spencer said. He tried not to look over his shoulder to see if the kids were still chasing them.


	3. Part III: Slaughter in Gatlin

**HAUNTED**

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**PART III: **SLAUGHTER IN GATLIN

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It felt like hours before the rushing adrenaline wore off from both of them and they had to stop to catch their breaths and try to calm their still racing hearts. Aaron Hotchner looked up to see an abandoned car parked near them. It didn't look like it had been touched in months, maybe close to a year. Looking around, he saw houses and stores. They had suddenly found themselves in a town of sorts.

"Are they still behind us?" Spencer asked breathlessly.

Aaron gathered himself back up and rose to his feet. He staggered around to peer into the storefronts. Squinting into the glass, he saw nothing but darkness. No traces of another human being on the other side. It was late so it was possible the stores were all locked up for the night but…there was a large chunk of him that didn't believe that anymore than that the kids had suddenly given up on chasing the two FBI agents. Still there were no signs of children running rampant either.

He shook his head as he turned back to Spencer. "They seemed to have given up," he said. Doubtful.

For a moment the men said nothing, sharing the silence and darkness that lingered. Then Spencer seemed thoughtful for a moment. "This must be Gatlin," he said finally.

Aaron looked at him, unable to keep the surprise from his face. "I just remembered reading a sign we passed an hour back," he explained sheepishly.

Had this been any other time, any other trip, Aaron was sure he'd have found some amusement to that but his mind couldn't help but go back to the kids back there, waiting for ambush them at their vehicle. Something had been completely off with the chase and suddenly Aaron Hotchner found himself bursting with dozens of questions and what ifs. He was sure that Spencer was feeling the same thing.

"Hotch."

At the sound of his name, he looked up. Spencer was staring at him questioningly, as if he was trying to make sense of something but was having trouble. "I can't…I can't understand what happened back there," he muttered.

Aaron didn't say anything. He was sure nothing he said would help, that he was completely lost as Spencer and it felt like they shouldn't be, that they were supposed to figure this out. "First it was the guy, the corpse," Spencer said, mind racing frantically, thoughts all jumbled. "Well no…corpses can't stand on their own but I know what I saw. I know you saw it too, right?" he looked pleadingly at his boss, hoping he wasn't going crazy and yet also hoping he was because what they saw out there…only a crazy person would see that, right?

Aaron wished he could say that he didn't see what Spencer did, that Spencer was probably finally going mental and that everything so far was just a dream…but Aaron definitely knew what he saw, what he felt. It was all real even if a part of him wished it wasn't. He nodded slightly or did he? He couldn't really tell anymore. He swallowed thickly; tasting his own fear and hoping it would stay down in the pits of his stomach and leave him alone. Now wasn't the time to be afraid, he kept trying to silently tell himself.

"I saw it," he said hoarsely. "I saw everything." He didn't bother to add that he didn't believe in what he saw; only that he saw it. But it wasn't like it was needed. He knew Spencer knew. He felt it in him, sensed it in him. Maybe because Spencer didn't want to believe any of this either. Or maybe another reason. Either way, they saw what they saw.

"But what I don't understand the most," Spencer furrowed his eyebrows and Aaron swiveled to watch the agent closely, "is why they just suddenly gave up if they really wanted to take us…and why send only two small kids to try and overpower two armed full grown adults?" Aaron frowned at the thought. He had wondered that too.

How they knew the men were even there in the first place and that there would be two of them was beyond Aaron. Those two had just been kids after all. He started to voice his own opinions when suddenly there were the sounds of shouts. "Not again," Aaron gritted out, turning half-way to see a crowd of a little less than a dozen children making their way over to where the FBI agents stood. He pushed Spencer forward, letting the profiler gasp and stumble. "Go."

Spencer didn't have to be told to run and this time he heard a bang as Aaron shot out into the crowd. There was no way Aaron would ever be able to talk down a bunch of children armed with pitchforks and butcher knives and other things that seemed just as dangerous and harmful, their small beady eyes staring into the two men trying to rip out their beating hearts with one menacing glance. Spencer wanted to stay positive as he heard the gunshots and the surprised screams as the bullets met their targets but he knew it wouldn't be much longer before his body couldn't take any more of the running and he'd be going down for the count and he knew that Aaron was in the exact same state as he was. "Hotch," he said and he wasn't sure why he was calling out to his boss at the moment, only that he was in full blown panic mode and it seemed like the right thing to say at a time like this.

Aaron spared him a glance before turning his attention back to the demonic possessed children (really that was the only thing his mind could come up with as they made their way into the never-ending fields of corns). One of the kids stopped dead in his track and watched nervously as the agents darted into the corns. With his heart pounding hard in his chest, Aaron didn't miss it. No one was following them as Spencer led the two quickly through the corns. Something was off and Aaron grabbed at Spencer's shoulder to stop him from going any further.

"They stopped following us," he whispered, panic starting to rise and make his heart flutter.

He didn't want to be here. His mind was telling him to get out now and so far when he chose to ignore its warning, something bad always seemed to happen. He watched as Spencer tried to grasp what he said, as the information slowly sank into his brain and he was suddenly pulling, dragging Aaron with him as he made his way through the corn, trying desperately to find a way out. "Where did we come from?" he asked in a slight panic, his voice raising a pitch as fear tried to once again clench at his heart.

"This way," Aaron said and pulled them down another way.

Spencer shook his head furiously. "It definitely wasn't that way, Hotch, trust me."

Aaron hesitated, suddenly unsure. It wasn't that he didn't trust Spencer because God, he did, he definitely did. But now he felt more lost than ever before as he tried to decipher which way they had taken to end up in this certain row of corn. Everything looked utterly the same. "Try to concentrate, Reid," he said, trying hard to keep under control. "Which way did we come from?"

Spencer thought for a second. "This way," he pulled Aaron to their left; certain it would lead them out and not toward the center. A part of him, the logical part, told him he was going the right way but the other part, the one that led him to panic first, wasn't so sure.

As they walked on, the two keeping quiet so as to not draw unwanted attention to anyone in the maze of corns, Spencer felt Aaron slowing down and wondered if his boss was getting tired. He had forgotten how much running they had done during the adrenaline rushes when they were trying to get away from the children. He was having a harder time pulling Aaron along, as if the agent was suddenly dragging his feet into the ground.

"Reid," the urgency in the way the words were whispered made Spencer freeze. He looked back to see Aaron not looking at him, instead staring down at his feet. Spencer looked down too and his heart plummeted at what he saw there, suddenly wishing he didn't look.

"What is that?" Spencer asked, noting that his voice shook hard. He tightened his grip on Aaron's wrist when his Unit Chief turned to finally look at him, the usually stoic face drained of all colors, eyes awash with fear.

"I don't know," he said, shock encasing his whole body.

Spencer tried to step closer. The ground moved in response, threatening to swallow both agents up if Spencer came any closer to his boss. Large tendrils shot out of nowhere and wrapped around Aaron's torso. One of the dozen already on him started to move over his boss's stretched out hand toward Spencer himself and giving an involuntary surprised yelp, Spencer let go and darted back.

There was an agonizing second in which Spencer could do nothing but watch helplessly as the tendrils covered up the entirety of his boss's body before slinking back off into the opposite direction. Spencer wanted desperately to follow it as his mind replayed the total helplessness and fear that overtook Aaron Hotchner in those final moments, hoping beyond hope that his boss was alive but knowing deep down that the chances of that were slim. Another part of Spencer was still trying to process everything.

Spencer Reid wasn't usually a believer in anything he didn't see but…God…he saw all this tonight. And Aaron Hotchner was the Unit Chief of the BAU, his boss, his comrade and sometimes Spencer liked to believe, his friend. He raced after the last of the tendrils, not exactly sure what he was doing at this point as the logical part of him was screaming at him not to do this, that Aaron was more than likely a goner, that he still had a chance if he made his way out now.

Spencer didn't take this job to abandon people, much less someone he had come to know and love as family.

He was so determined to follow the things that had taken Aaron that Spencer never saw the monstrous vines that extended out from behind him, not until it was too late anyway…


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